Financial Press Review, 23 June

The Ziarul Financiar took stock of our country’s absorbed funds from the European Union in the first six months of the year: ‘only half of the goal has been reached.’

‘Absorption of (EU) funds reached 12.7 percent at the middle of this month compared with the 0.3 percent from the previous month end.’

The same newspaper published an article from which we learn that ‘short-term external debt - meaning the loans taken from abroad by the state, banks and private companies that have to be returned the next 12 months - and the main vulnerability that made Romania hit rock bottom at the end of 2008 inflated again.’

‘It came to 19.3 billion euros in April, the highest level since April 2009.’

‘However, the bulk of the short-term external debt remained in the bank accounts that during the boom years brought funds from the parent banks abroad to finance the local loans,’ the newspaper noted.

The Bursa noticed that ‘the current account deficit in Romania continues to be one of the largest in Europe and the resumption of lending to pre-crisis rate will not be possible, given that European states no longer tolerate living on credit growth’ as Valentin Lazea, the NBR chief economist, said at a conference on non-performing loans.

‘Easy money period is over’, the Ziarul Financiar wrote under the heading ‘Loans will not ever be granted as during boom years,’ ‘when they inflated imports and external debt.’

‘Credit sales (...) remained at fault despite the increasingly numerous signals of economic recovery,’ the newspaper noted.

The Curierul Naţional otherwise opened its edition with the title ‘Why do Romanians not enter banks anymore?’

‘Although the interest both in RON and in foreign currencies reached thei ​​historic lows, the demand for loans in Romania remained very low. (...) Most of the existing and potential customers simply cannot afford them,’ the newspaper said.

The Ziarul Financiar opened its edition with an article entitled ‘A GfK study showed for the first time that Romanians noticed on the shelves: the same products more expensive in our country than abroad.’ ‘Without factories, Romanians pay the highest prices on shampoo, toothpaste and soap.’

Several newspaper articles covered the inauguration of the first electric cars filling station in Romania, in Piaţa Unirii in the capital city.

‘We think and other facilities to allow public access to electric cars,’ the Ziarul Financiar and Curierul Naţional quoted the Environment Minister Laszlo Borbely, who attended the event.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University